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The purpose of this paper is to study the development of space-age aesthetics culture and arts in seven decades since 1950s. The first known use of "space-age" was in 1946, and was defined as "of, relating to, or befitting the age of space exploration." A more popular definition for the "space age" is "The space age is the time period in human history related to the space race, space exploration, and space technology. Most people say this started when Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957, and continues to today. This has influenced culture such as in movies, television, music, art, and architecture." Culture, in the anthropology, is the patterns of behaviour and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people's culture includes their beliefs, rules of behaviour, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. Therefore, the space-age art is one of the major elements of the space-age culture of human beings. On the other hand, the space exploration has significant inspiration and influence on the aesthetics art. In particular, the following aspects shall be studied in this paper: architecture and exhibition craftworks. • The space-age architecture and exhibition craftworks were investigated. • Five space-age architecture shapes investigated are disc, rocket, tower, spherical and combined. • Three space-age installation craftworks studied are sky waves, embroidery, planet models, etc. • Many space-age architectures are destroyed due to many reasons. • Hopefully the young generations can be inspired to carry forward these precious heritages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic anthropologists are often confronted with human remains that have been damaged due to trauma, fire, or postmortem taphonomic alteration, frequently resulting in the fracture and fragmentation of skeletal elements. The augmented reality (AR) technology introduced in this paper builds on familiar 3D visualization methods and utilizes them to make three dimensional holographic meshes of skeletal fragments that can be manipulated, tagged, and examined by the user. Here, CT scans, neural radiance fields (NeRF) artificial intelligence software, and Unreal Engine production software are utilized to construct a three-dimensional holographic image that can be manipulated with HoloLens™ technology to analyze the fracture margin and reconstruct craniofacial elements without causing damage to fragile remains via excessive handling. This allows forensic anthropologists a means of assessing aspects of the biological profile and traumatic injuries without risking further damage to the skeleton. It can also be utilized by students and professional anthropologists to practice refitting before reconstructing craniofacial fragments if refitting is necessary. Additionally, the holographic images can be used to explain complicated concepts in a courtroom without the emotional response related to using bony elements as courtroom exhibits. • Craniofacial reconstruction aids with the biological profile and signs of trauma. • CT-based AR craniofacial reconstruction can reduce bone damage from overhandling. • Neural resonance fields (NeRF) can rapidly convert CT scans into AR visual content. • AR visualization minimizes damage from manual manipulation. • AR allows the viewer to assess the skeleton in three rather than two dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a high-power explosive which is often used by criminals. The detection of TATP is of great significance for solving the explosion cases. However, the preconcentration and analysis of trace levels of TATP still pose challenges for analytical researchers. In this study, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), including IRMOF-8, MOF-5, UIO-66, ZIF-8, and MIL-101(Cr), were immobilized on a stainless steel wire using a physical adhesive method as a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber coating. The prepared fibers with a controllable thickness were used for the extraction of TATP followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Under the identical experimental conditions, the IRMOF-8-coated fiber exhibited higher extraction efficiency for TATP than the other fibers. The IRMOF-8-coated fiber was then characterized using scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The results indicated that the IRMOF-8-coated fiber not only had good thermal and chemical stabilities but also afforded a high TATP extraction efficiency. Under the same extraction conditions, the extraction efficiency of the IRMOF-8-coated fiber was 2–8 times higher than those of commercial fibers. The limit of detection was 13 ng/mL, and linearity was observed in the range of 50–5000 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.998. The intraday repeatability (n = 6), interday repeatability (n = 3), and fiber-to-fiber reproducibility (n = 3), were 4.1 %, 4.8 %, and 8.0 %, respectively. The recoveries of TATP from the simulated tap water and soil samples were 87.32–90.57 % and 88.76–100.93 %, respectively, with relative standard deviations lower than 11.11 % (n = 3). The above method was successfully applied for the detection of TATP transferred from a finger to a paper surface, demonstrating its good application prospects in the analysis of trace TATP. • MOF-based SPME fibers were prepared to extract TATP. • The extraction efficiencies of different MOF-coated fibers were compared. • Good stabilities and extraction efficiencies were obtained for IRMOF-8-coated fiber. • Extraction efficiency of IRMOF-8-coated fiber was higher than for commercial fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to verify the applicability and reproducibility of the FSS system [8] adapted for frontal and lateral cephalometric radiographs of the frontal sinus for human identification purposes. Eighty lateral and frontal digital cephalometric radiographs from a private Dental Radiology service's database were evaluated. Evaluations were performed in a dimmed lighting room, using a 4.200 lux lightbox with mask, ultrafan paper and pencil with a 0.5 diameter tip. The sheet of paper was superimposed on the radiograph to obtain the outlines of the frontal sinus and two examiners made the drawings independently at two different times, with a minimum period interval between evaluations. To obtain the linear physical measurements of the frontal sinus, a digital pachymeter was used. Later, all the discrete variables were codded for the statistical analysis. All variables were tested by means of the Cohen's Kappa test. The intraexaminer agreement ranged from good to perfect (p<0.001), while the interexaminer agreement ranged from regular to perfect (p<0.001). The use of frontal and lateral cephalometric radiographs was found to be reproducible and reliable for human identification by an adaptation of FSS system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Craniofacial reconstruction recreates a facial outlook from the cranium based on the relationship between the face and the skull to assist identification. But craniofacial structures are very complex, and this relationship is not the same in different craniofacial regions. Several regional methods have recently been proposed, these methods segmented the face and skull into regions, and the relationship of each region is then learned independently, after that, facial regions for a given skull are estimated and finally glued together to generate a face. Most of these regional methods use vertex coordinates to represent the regions, and they define a uniform coordinate system for all of the regions. Consequently, the inconsistence in the positions of regions between different individuals is not eliminated before learning the relationships between the face and skull regions, and this reduces the accuracy of the craniofacial reconstruction. In order to solve this problem, an improved regional method is proposed in this paper involving two types of coordinate adjustments. One is the global coordinate adjustment performed on the skulls and faces with the purpose to eliminate the inconsistence of position and pose of the heads; the other is the local coordinate adjustment performed on the skull and face regions with the purpose to eliminate the inconsistence of position of these regions. After these two coordinate adjustments, partial least squares regression (PLSR) is used to estimate the relationship between the face region and the skull region. In order to obtain a more accurate reconstruction, a new fusion strategy is also proposed in the paper to maintain the reconstructed feature regions when gluing the facial regions together. This is based on the observation that the feature regions usually have less reconstruction errors compared to rest of the face. The results demonstrate that the coordinate adjustments and the new fusion strategy can significantly improve the craniofacial reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some of the more commonly encountered non-metric traits and minor anatomical variants in the adult human skeleton that can mimic or be mistaken for trauma. Distinguishing non-metric traits is contingent upon both a knowledge of potential non-metric traits as well as the normal developmental timing, location, and anatomy of maturational markers in the human skeleton. Distinguishing non-metric traits from trauma in dry bone is an essential component in establishing an accurate and thorough forensic analysis of human remains, especially as it deals with antemortem and perimortem trauma, and postmortem damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blunt traumas are the most common injuries observed and reported in medical examiner settings. Two common methods to describe bending bone fractures in the anthropological literature include the application of morphology nomenclature and describing characteristic fracture morphology. A nomenclature descriptor of blunt trauma, the butterfly fracture, is commonly used to describe broken long bones. In this paper, a case study of a fractured long bone in a pedestrian vehicle accident is used to highlight the complex interplay of factors involved in bone fracture formation. The application of a butterfly fracture pattern in trauma analysis is useful in establishing the bending direction of a bone, in identifying failure modes, and is valuable in teaching. Yet, butterfly fracture characteristics need to be examined in 3-dimensions for diagnosis of modes of failure, tension, shear and compression, and even then, the bending direction of a broken bone may not provide a reliable indicator of the point of impact (POI); this is especially true when a priori knowledge of the injury is unknown. Common fracture nomenclature, such as oblique, transverse and/or comminuted, as well as eponyms, are medical descriptions of an injury which are impractical to use for interpreting a broken bone from fleshed or skeletonized remains, in establishing a POI and in evaluating total bone trauma (TBT). The examination ofcharacteristic features on the surface of a broken bone associated with the modes of failure is the best approach for establishing the bending direction of a long bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental and maxillofacial trauma analysis in the forensic context, includes assessment of both living and deceased persons. It is required in all cases where human abuse is suspected and where signs of skeletal trauma are detected in human remains. Skeletal trauma refers to the damage inflicted to bone, teeth and other hard tissues. An accurate analysis of the dental and maxillofacial trauma is achieved by the assessment of the remains by forensic pathologists, anthropologists and odontologists. This paper aims to review dental and maxillofacial skeletal trauma in the scope of forensic science. High-velocity projectile, sharp force, blunt force, and thermal trauma showing different traits in maxillofacial structures are discussed. Regarding non-fatal physical abuse, head and neck are the most frequently injured areas, resulting in fractures, contusions, burns and traumatic dental injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence or poor preservation of vertebrae often prevent the application of the anatomical method for stature estimation. The main objective of this paper was to develop a web app based on artificial neural network (ANN) models to estimate the vertebral height of absent or poorly preserved vertebrae from other vertebrae and thus enable the application of anatomical methods. Artificial neural models were developed based on the vertebral height of vertebrae C2 to S1 of a sample composed of 56 adult male and 69 adult female individuals. The skeletons belong to the Identified Skeletal Collection of the University of Coimbra and the ages at death of these individuals ranged from 22 to 58 years old. Statistical analysis and algorithmic development were performed with the R language, R Core Team (2018). Intra- and inter-observer errors regarding the vertebral height were small for all vertebrae (<0.45 mm). Significant models to estimate vertebral height were obtained for both sexes and for the sex-pooled group, although none with an R2 higher than 0.48 and 0.34 for the C2 and the S1, respectively. The root mean square error (RMSE) regarding the predicted vertebral height and the observed vertebral height was almost always smaller than 1.0 mm while most R2 values were higher than 0.6 although models with worse performances were obtained for some vertebrae located at the ends of the vertebral column (C3, L4, and L5). The ANN models have clear potential to predict vertebral height. This mathematical approach may be used to enable the application of the anatomical method for stature estimation when some vertebrae are absent or poorly preserved. The application of the ANN models can be carried out by using the new web based app SPINNE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the inability to meaningfully and reliably conduct toxicological testing on human skeletal material represents a significant gap in forensic practice, especially in a time when the U.S. has declared opioid use a public health emergency and chemical weapon use in both mass and isolated attacks is prevalent in international news. In recent years, an increasing number of case studies and experiments have been published in an attempt to fill this knowledge gap. These papers are reviewed, and their valuable and pertinent findings discussed. However, the lack of an established model for the incorporation of drugs of forensic interest into bone has limited interpretation of results and delayed adoption of skeletal toxicology methods into accepted forensic practice. A model for the in vivo incorporation of drugs of forensic interest into bone tissue is proposed herein. This model is derived from known pathways for in vivo incorporation of compounds and analytes not of traditional forensic interest into bone tissue and is based on principles of ionic exchange, adsorption, and substitution. Testing and understanding these pathways may better guide skeletal toxicological experimentation, resulting in methods more tailored to human bone as a unique, largely inorganic matrix, as well as in increased interpretability of results. Further, the proposed model suggests possible novel applications for the field of skeletal toxicology on the humanitarian stage. Indeed, based on their chemical properties, chemical weapon nerve agents should be investigated as xenobiotics that may incorporate into the human skeleton at relatively elevated levels. If nerve agents can be isolated from skeletal remains, the field of skeletal toxicology may be able to offer important contributions to human rights investigations of mass graves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict casualties refer to those individuals who are lost due to military conflict or war. The involvement of forensic archaeologists and anthropologists in the legal search, recovery, documentation, identification, and repatriation/reburial of conflict casualties is well known. Internationally, there are a number of professional organisations who ethically recover and identify these individuals. However, at the same time, some organisations and individuals have raised significant concerns about working in other countries, understanding specific laws and protocols, and how the whole recovery and identification process should be undertaken. Through this special issue, Forensic Science International is interested in promoting these investigative good-practice procedures, illustrated with case studies, and ethical and legal considerations when undertaking and disseminating these humanitarian missions to the wider forensic community. This Special Issue focuses primarily on the First and Second World Wars, yet other conflicts are covered, and includes the views and perspectives from different organisations within specific countries in the format of original papers, commentaries, and case reports. Specifically, these papers include the legislative regulations, information regarding the authorities to be consulted on and who deal with human remains, the organisations and professionals who are involved with the recovery and analysis of human remains, the process of identification, and how this information is disseminated to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For measurements to be accurate and precise, measurement errors should be small. In the anthropometry and craniofacial identification literature, four methods are commonly used for assessing measurement error: Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (r), intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), statistical significance tests (often reported by P-values) and the technical error of measurement (TEM; also known as Dalberg's error/ratio). In this paper, the performance of all four of these statistics were evaluated using maximum cranial lengths (g-op) from Howells (n=2524), by duplicating the dataset and mathematically adding known degrees of error to the second set. This was repeated under a broad array of trials (2000 total) each with slightly different amounts of error simulation to comprehensively assess the four error metrics in terms of descriptive power and utility, using the same data for each of the four error assessment methods. Data simulations included the addition of random and systematic errors of different sizes with absolute differences ranging from 1 to 50mm (or in relative terms, 28% of the original measurement). Two sample sizes (n=25 and 2524 individuals) were explored and all analyses were conducted in R. P-values from Student's t-tests only showed significant differences (P<0.05) for the larger sample size when the error was systematic. Small samples, and/or any with random error, did not yield low or significant P-values (P<0.05). When raw differences were <4mm for 95% of the sample (n=2524), the ICC and r were high (>0.97) and remained so even after tripling the error, such that 95% of the sample possessed raw differences up to 12mm (r=0.8). In contrast, the TEM was low initially (<2mm or r-TEM<1%), and then increased (<4.5mm and 2.5%, TEM and r-TEM respectively). These data show that P-values, ICC and r values hold substantial limits for error description as they do not always flag error well. In contrast, TEM appears to covary with error more saliently and holds the advantage that changes are reported in the units of the original measurement. For these reasons, TEM is recommended in favour to P-values, ICC and r. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archival research into episodes of frontier violence in the Kimberley region of Western Australia indicate that the bodies of Aboriginal victims of massacres were frequently incinerated following the event. This paper presents the results of a scientific investigation of a reported massacre at Sturt Creek where burnt bone fragments were identified in two adjacent sites and documents the archaeological signatures associated with the sites. The methodology used to undertake the project brought together three systems of knowledge: the oral testimonies of the descent group originating from a sole adult survivor of the massacre; archival, historical and scientific research. An archaeological survey defined the two distinct sites containing hundreds of fragile bone fragments; a third site was found to be highly disturbed. Scientific investigations included macroscopic and microscopic examination of selected bone fragments by an anatomical pathologist and a zooarchaeologist and X-ray diffraction analysis of sixteen bone fragments. The anatomical pathologist and zooarchaeologist undertook macroscopic and microscopic examinations of selected bone samples to identify morphological evidence for human origin. It was concluded that three bone fragments examined may have been human, and two of the fragments may have been from the vault of a skull. It was concluded that the likelihood of them being human would be strengthened if it was found that the three samples had been subjected to high temperatures. X-ray diffraction analysis of 16 bone fragments provided this evidence. All fragments showed sharp hydroxylapatite peaks (crystallite sizes 9882nm and 597nm respectively) and all had been subjected to extreme temperatures of either 600°C for more than 80h, 650°C for more than 20h, 700°C for more than 4h or 800°C for more than 1h. XRD analyses were also done on bone samples collected from three cooking hearths at three different archaeological sites. It was found that two of the three samples had been exposed to substantially lower temperatures for a short time period. It was concluded that there was strong pathological and archaeological evidence that the bone fragments were human in origin, but that the evidence was not conclusive. This research also identified archaeological signatures for the identification of massacre sites in similar Australian environments and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team (JCCC), part of the British Ministry of Defence, is responsible for managing the identification of human remains from British casualties who fell during WWI and WWII primarily. With this task in mind, the work to identify and rebury the historic battle casualties is at the heart of this team's work. In addition, the team also considers new evidence regarding possible identification of an individual buried as "unknown" and they administer the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. This paper provides an insight into the work undertaken by this Team, identifying and commemorating the remains of WWI and WWII British casualties. The paper also includes several case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful classification of questioned footwear has tremendous evidentiary value; the result can minimize the potential suspect pool and link a suspect to a victim, a crime scene, or even multiple crime scenes to each other. With this in mind, several different automated and semi-automated classification models have been applied to the forensic footwear recognition problem, with superior performance commonly associated with two different approaches: correlation of image power (magnitude) or phase, and the use of local interest points transformed using the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and compared using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC). Despite the distinction associated with each of these methods, all three have not been cross-compared using a single dataset, of limited quality (i.e., characteristic of crime scene-like imagery), and created using a wide combination of image inputs. To address this question, the research presented here examines the classification performance of the Fourier-Mellin transform (FMT), phase-only correlation (POC), and local interest points (transformed using SIFT and compared using RANSAC), as a function of inputs that include mixed media (blood and dust), transfer mechanisms (gel lifters), enhancement techniques (digital and chemical) and variations in print substrate (ceramic tiles, vinyl tiles and paper). Results indicate that POC outperforms both FMT and SIFT+RANSAC, regardless of image input (type, quality and totality), and that the difference in stochastic dominance detected for POC is significant across all image comparison scenarios evaluated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of sex is a central step to establish the biological profile of an anonymous skeletal individual. Imaging techniques, including bone densitometry, have been used to evaluate sex in remains incompletely skeletonized. In this paper, we present a technique for sex estimation using the total area (TA) of the proximal femur, a two-dimensional areal measurement determined through densitometry. TA was acquired from a training sample (112 females; 112 males) from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection (University of Coimbra, Portugal). Logistic regression (LR), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), reduce error pruning trees (REPTree), and classification and regression trees (CART) were employed in order to obtain models that could predict sex in unidentified skeletal remains. Under cross-validation, the proposed models correctly estimated sex in 90.2-92.0% of cases (bias ranging from 1.8% to 4.5%). The models were evaluated in an independent test sample (30 females; 30 males) from the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection (University of Coimbra, Portugal), with a sex allocation accuracy ranging from 90.0% to 91.7% (bias from 3.3% to 10.0%). Overall, data mining classifiers, especially the REPTree, performed better than the traditional classifiers (LR and LDA), maximizing overall accuracy and minimizing bias. This study emphasizes the significant value of bone densitometry to estimate sex in cadaveric remains in diverse states of preservation and completeness, even human remains with soft tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast, high-throughput distinction between palaeoanthropological/archaeological remains and recent forensic/clinical bone samples is of vital importance in the field of medico-legal science. In this paper, a novel dating method was developed using the autofluorescence of human bones and the confocal laser scanning microscope as the means to distinguish between archaeological and forensic anthropological skeletal findings. Human bones exhibit fluorescence, typically induced by natural antibiotics that are absorbed by collagen, and provide secondary, exogenous fluorophores. However, primary natural fluorescence (or autofluorescence) caused by enigmatic endogenous fluorophores is also present as a micro-phenomenon, whose nature is still obscure. Here, we show that the endogenous fluorophores are mucopolysaccharides of the Rouget-Neumann sheath and, more relevant, that the intensity of the natural fluorescence in human bone decreases in a relationship to the antiquity of the samples. These results suggest that the autofluorescence of bone is a promising technique for the assessment of skeletal remains that may be potentially of medico-legal interest. A larger study is proposed to confirm these findings and to create a predictive model between the autofluorescence intensity and the time since death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial soft tissue thicknesses (FSTT) are important guidelines for modeling faces from skull. Amid so many FSTT data, Forensic artists have to make a subjective choice of a dataset that best meets their needs. This study investigated the performance of four FSTT datasets in the recognition and resemblance of Brazilian living individuals and the performance of assessors in recognizing people, according to sex and knowledge on Human Anatomy and Forensic Dentistry. Sixteen manual facial approximations (FAs) were constructed using three-dimensional (3D) prototypes of skulls (targets). The American method was chosen for the construction of the faces. One hundred and twenty participants evaluated all FAs by means of recognition and resemblance tests. This study showed higher proportions of recognition by FAs conducted with FSTT data from cadavers compared with those conducted with medical imaging data. Targets were also considered more similar to FAs conducted with FSTT data from cadavers. Nose and face shape, respectively, were considered the most similar regions to targets. The sex of assessors (male and female) and the knowledge on Human Anatomy and Forensic Dentistry did not play a determinant role to reach greater recognition rates. It was possible to conclude that FSTT data obtained from imaging may not facilitate recognition and establish acceptable level of resemblance. Grouping FSTT data by regions of the face, as proposed in this paper, may contribute to more accurate FAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An estimate of stature can be used by a forensic anthropologist with the preliminary identification of an unknown individual when human skeletal remains are recovered. Fordisc is a computer application that can be used to estimate stature; like many other methods it requires the user to assign an unknown individual to a specific group defined by sex, race/ancestry, and century of birth before an equation is applied. The assumption is that a group-specific equation controls for group differences and should provide the best results most often. In this paper we assess the utility and benefits of using group-specific equations to estimate stature using Fordisc. Using the maximum length of the humerus and the maximum length of the femur from individuals with documented stature, we address the question: Do sex-, race/ancestry- and century-specific stature equations provide the best results when estimating stature? The data for our sample of 19th Century White males (n=28) were entered into Fordisc and stature was estimated using 22 different equation options for a total of 616 trials: 19th and 20th Century Black males, 19th and 20th Century Black females, 19th and 20th Century White females, 19th and 20th Century White males, 19th and 20th Century any, and 20th Century Hispanic males. The equations were assessed for utility in any one case (how many times the estimated range bracketed the documented stature) and in aggregate using 1-way ANOVA and other approaches. This group-specific equation that should have provided the best results was outperformed by several other equations for both the femur and humerus. These results suggest that group-specific equations do not provide better results for estimating stature while at the same time are more difficult to apply because an unknown must be allocated to a given group before stature can be estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic pathology often uses osteobiography, which involves biological profiles based on a determination of the age, sex, constitution, pathological states and other anomalies (paleopathology) of subjects for identification purposes. In this paper, proteins were analysed in bone remains. A total of 45 long bones from 45 different cadavers (29 males, 16 females) with a mean age of 66.31 years (S.D.=19.48, range 20-97) were used to search for pathological biomarkers which are closely related to several diseases. The bones were removed from the cement niches of a cemetery in Murcia (south-eastern Spain), where they had lain for between 18 and 45 years (mean time 25.84 years, S.D.=8.91). After a specific extraction using Tris-Urea buffer, were measured using HPLC/MS/MS. Our results show that proteins resulting from tumoral diseases and bacterial and viral pathogens can be detected and identified in the skeletal remains, making them useful pathological biomarkers for constructing biological profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of cadaver length and forensic stature as a proxy for living standing height has not been scrutinized in detail. In this paper we present a brief review of the current knowledge on the relationship between cadaver, living and forensic stature; assess the magnitude and nature of the differences between these three measures of stature; and investigate the potential impact of these differences in forensic contexts. The study uses a sample of 84 males who were autopsied in 2008 at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Porto, Portugal), where stature data were collected from three different sources: cadaver stature was obtained from the corpse prior to autopsy, living stature was obtained from military conscription records and forensic stature was obtained from national citizenship identification card records. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and linear regression are used to analyze the data. The results show that cadaver stature is the highest measure, followed by forensic and by living stature, and the difference between cadaver and living stature is greater than expected (4.3cm). Results also show considerable individual variation in the differences between the three measures of stature and that differences decrease with stature, although only slightly. This study has shown that the difference between cadaver and living stature is greater than previously thought and suggests that previously reported correction factors are a minimum rather than a mean correction. Forensic stature is likely to be incorrectly estimated and can jeopardize identification if methods estimate living rather than forensic stature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Forensic podiatry is defined as the application of sound and researched podiatric knowledge and experience in forensic investigations; to show the association of an individual with a scene of crime, or to answer any other legal question concerned with the foot or footwear that requires knowledge of the functioning foot". Forensic podiatrists can contribute to forensic identification by associating the pedal evidence with the criminal or crime scene. The most common pedal evidence collected from the crime scene is in the form of footprints, shoeprints and their tracks and trails. Forensic podiatrists can establish identity of the individuals from the footprints in many ways. The analysis of bare footprints involves the identification based on the individualistic features like flat footedness, ridges, humps, creases, an extra toe, missing toe, corns, cuts, cracks, pits, deformities, and various features of the toe and heel region. All these individualistic features can link the criminal with the crime. In addition to these, parameters of body size like stature and body weight as well as sex can also be estimated by using anthropometric methods. If a series of footprints are recovered from the crime scene, then parameters of the gait analysis such as stride/step length and general movement of the criminal can be traced. Apart from these, a newly established biometric parameter of the footprints i.e. footprint ridge density can also be evaluated for personal identification. Careful analysis of the footprint ridge density can give an idea about the sex of the criminal whose footprints are recovered at the scene which can further help to reduce the burden of the investigating officer as the investigations then may be directed toward either a male suspect or a female suspect accordingly. This paper highlights various aspects of Forensic Podiatry and discusses the different methods of personal identification related to pedal evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of ancestry from skeletal remains is problematic for subadults because of a lack of systematic research on the topic. This paper addresses the need for systematic research into geographical variation through childhood and puberty through the examination of the emergence of cranial morphological traits through an analysis of 756 subadults from 4 months in utero to <20 years of age. The first appearance of a trait, changes in the morphology of a trait through time, age stability as related to the age of maturation of the structure, and the developmental mechanisms and processes that cause traits to appear together are addressed. Most traits are influenced by patterns of growth and development and become age stable in conjunction with the larger growth complexes of which they are a part. Geographic cranial variation is present from an early age. Population specific differences in the expression of most traits are apparent from their first appearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex estimation is used in forensic anthropology to assist the identification of individual remains. However, the estimation techniques tend to be unique and applicable only to a certain population. This paper analyzed sex estimation on living individual child below 19 years old using the length of 19 bones of left hand applied for three classification techniques, which were Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) multilayer perceptron. These techniques were carried out on X-ray images of the left hand taken from an Asian population data set. All the 19 bones of the left hand were measured using Free Image software, and all the techniques were performed using MATLAB. The group of age ''16-19'' years old and ''7-9'' years old were the groups that could be used for sex estimation with as their average of accuracy percentage was above 80%. ANN model was the best classification technique with the highest average of accuracy percentage in the two groups of age compared to other classification techniques. The results show that each classification technique has the best accuracy percentage on each different group of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identified (documented) osteological collections represent an important resource in the development of forensic anthropology standards and methods as well as a precious tool for learning and training of practitioners. Even though the number of papers presenting identified collections worldwide increases, many of the collections have still not been divulged to the scientific community in sufficient detail to ascertain their exact number. The Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) therefore developed a tool that goes beyond sporadic publications: the FASE Map of Identified Osteological Collections, which is freely accessible and continuously updated and revised. The online map is available at http://forensicanthropology.eu/osteological-collections/. The map of skeletal collections was created in 2017 and currently displays information on 153 identified osteological collections (43 of them categorized as contemporary) located in 41 different countries. This article offers a short analysis of the type, geographical location and content of the collections included in the map. The aim of this article and the map as such is to provide a useful resource to facilitate research planning and teaching in forensic anthropology and related disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results obtained by employing a usual technique for latent prints development on firearms are presented. A fingermark on a trigger was enhanced and this print was used to identify the person who handled the firearm. Indeed, it is not usual to find a useful fingermark in that position and, more in general, on firearms because of many different factors described in the following sections. The uniqueness of the results reported in this paper allow to consider the present casework as very interesting for the forensic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death in the "microwave oven" has nothing to do with microwaves energy. It is the jargon name given to a criminal form of execution by carbonization that has been adopted by drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The goal is to torture and intimidate victims, in an attempt of corpse occultation and to make identification harder or impossible. This paper brings to attention of the forensic international community an unusual and very cruel form of execution as a way to document these situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explosion-related deaths are a disregarded topic of forensic sciences, despite the pivotal role of the forensic pathologist in such investigations. In fact, very few scientific articles have been published up to now, even if there is a considerable increase of terrorist attacks worldwide due to the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In this paper, the authors show a retrospective autopsy-based study on the two major civilian terrorist events which occurred in Milan (Italy). The first one took place in a closed system, where a gelignite bomb was set inside the National Agriculture Bank in December 1969. 17 people were killed, and all of them underwent forensic autopsies, which were performed at the Milan Institute of Legal Medicine. The second event took place in an open system, where a car bomb exploded in Palestro Street in July 1993. 5 people were killed, forensic autopsies were performed as well. A total of 22 explosion-related deaths were assessed in this study. For each victim, the analysis of clothes, external and internal examinations were reported; furthermore, a statistical analysis using Fisher's exact test was carried out in order to show differences among blast injuries that occurred in a closed system versus an open system. The analysis of the autopsy reports, which included the descriptions of clothes, and the injury patterns allowed a possible reconstruction of the bodily exposure side of the victims in relation to the origin site of the explosive devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic age estimation is routinely applied in investigations involving identification of individuals. Over the past century a myriad of methods have been devised for age estimation. One such method, proposed by Suchey and Brooks in 1990, groups the observed changes occurring in the pubic symphysis into six phases, each defined by a corresponding age range. The present study was piloted with the focussed question being to empirically determine the accuracy of the Suchey-Brooks method in computed tomographic age estimation by analysing morphological changes occurring in the pubic symphysis. Original articles pertaining to the use of the Suchey-Brooks method for CT based age estimation were extracted from four different databases- PubMed, CENTRAL, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect. Research papers which were answering the focussed question were selected for data analysis. After assessing the risk of bias of the selected articles, the data was subjected to Meta-analysis. Pooled analysis of correctly/accurately aged individuals/remains using the random and fixed effect models yielded a prediction percentage of 78% and 86%, respectively. Higher percentages were obtained for phase-wise and subgroup analysis, indicating that the Suchey-Brooks method is a reliable method for age estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of exhumations of individuals who died during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), since the year 2000, over 780 mass graves have been excavated using archaeological methodology and following forensic protocols. Most of the recovered more than 9600 bodies have tended to be from the Republican civil population, the majority having been executed extrajudicially. However, a number of exhumations relate to the remains of soldiers who died in combat. In fact, approximately 100 individual or mass graves have been investigated and exhumed, containing the remains of combatants. These burials tend to be in the same location where they fell, usually in the front line, or close to the field hospitals where they went after being wounded initially. During the recovery of the human remains, a number of artefacts related to the uniform as well as personal effects have been found. An interdisciplinary approach from archaeology, anthropology, genetics, history and other disciplines has enabled the identification of some of these combatants. The aim of this paper is to present the data obtained from these combatants and highlight the work undertaken in Spain, and the efforts by scientists to exhume, identify and return the remains to relatives where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hungarian war grave care professionals weren't in an easy situation when they started the work because, until 2012, the burial places of Hungarian soldiers had no legal protection. It was necessary to develop legal regulations and scientific methods. Since this is a multidisciplinary field, the work is quite compound as many professionals from different field of sciences work together. This work requires the harmonic work of military historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists. Thanks to the conscientious work of these professionals, nowadays, we can talk about a stable institutionalized, multidisciplinary war grave care in Hungary which encompasses the work of the above-mentioned professionals. Thanks to scientific development, new opportunities are available for the professionals to identify war heroic deads. In this article, the history and the formation of the Hungarian war grave care are introduced and the methodology of the Hungarian war grave care professionals work is shown. The paper also aims to illustrate the changes in laws and the standard practice currently followed by professionals during the exploration and the processing of the human remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery, identification, and burial of casualties from World War I and II is still a topic of interest in many countries. In Slovakia, recent discoveries of such remains are usually accidental. Unfortunately, in many cases the remains are disrupted and without any material culture present, rendering the identification of the victim almost impossible. Majority of accidental skeletal remains are analyzed by legal medical doctors at forensic medicine departments spread across ten regional workplaces around the country. The aim of the paper is to point out the problems with recovery and identification of World War I and World War II remains in Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent review paper on cranio-facial superimposition (CFS) stated that "there have been specific conceptual variances" from the original methods used in the practice of skull-photo superimposition, leading to poor results as far as accuracy is concerned. It was argued that the deviations in the practice of the technique have resulted in the reduced accuracies (for both failure to include and failure to exclude) that are noted in several recent studies. This paper aims to present the results from recent research to highlight the advancement of skull-photo/cranio-facial superimposition, and to discuss some of the issues raised regarding deviations from original techniques. The evolving methodology of CFS is clarified in context with the advancement of technology, forensic science and specifically within the field of forensic anthropology. Developments in the skull-photo/cranio-facial superimposition techniques have largely focused on testing reliability and accuracy objectively. Techniques now being employed by forensic anthropologists must conform to rigorous scientific testing and methodologies. Skull-photo/cranio-facial superimposition is constantly undergoing accuracy and repeatability testing which is in line with the principles of the scientific method and additionally allows for advancement in the field. Much of the research has indicated that CFS is useful in exclusion which is consistent with the concept of Popperian falsifiability - a hypothesis and experimental design which is falsifiable. As the hypothesis is disproved or falsified, another evolves to replace it and explain the new observations. Current and future studies employing different methods to test the accuracy and reliability of skull-photo/cranio-facial superimposition will enable researchers to establish the contribution the technique can have for identification purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1945, the British Air Ministry established the Royal Air Force (RAF) Missing Research and Enquiry Service, to trace all of the RAF's wartime overseas casualties. Although a broad range of search techniques were used to find the resting places of personnel who were either known to have been killed or listed as missing, positive identification remained largely contingent upon an exhumation of their remains. This paper explores the forensic pathology and forensics techniques known to and used by the Search Officers involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current multifactorial age estimation methods are based on radiography, however, in the forensic field there is growing interest in using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). With regard to the carpal region, MRI provides more information for defining the individual ossification nuclei and the cartilage surrounding single bones. During the phase of bone growth, the progressive reduction of the cartilage layer is accompanied by the development of a cartilage-bone interface. The aim of our study was to create a new model for age estimation, based on the ratio between the area occupied by the nucleus of ossification (NO) and the surface of growth (SG) of each carpal bone, the latter derived by adding NO to the area of cartilage-bone interface. We analyzed 57 MRI scans of Italian subjects aged between 12 and 20 years, without growth diseases, endocrine disorders or osteodystrophy. Measurements of NO and SG areas were extracted using ImageJ software, and the ratio between the NO and SG of each bone (NOSG) was calculated. A multiple linear regression model was used to estimate the individual's age as a function of the variables: gender and wrist bone measurements. The results showed that the best model was obtained with 6 predictors (nvmax=6): Gender, and the NOSG of the Trapezoid, Trapezium, Scaphoid, Pisiform, and Capitate. The median of the residuals (observed age minus predicted age) was -0.025 years, with an IQR of 0.19 years. Thus a new forensic approach to age assessment using MRI is introduced in this paper, which gives the preliminary results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies revising methodology are essential to the development and standardization of the field of anthropology, especially as the ultimate goal is improved forensic analyses. A series of revisions were made to the Standards for Data Collection Procedures reference manual. This includes changes made to the definitions of several standard measurements ranging from modified landmark placement to variation in the proper orientation of the caliper. The aim of this paper was to compare measurements collected using the different sets of definitions to determine if the measurements would differ significantly. Fifteen measurements were collected from 30 crania and postcrania, first using the original definitions, and then using the modified definitions and/or landmarks. The measurement differences for the 2 sets of definitions were assessed using technical error of measurement and a Kruskal-Wallis test. Results indicate that 8 of the 15 measurements differed significantly when the modified definitions were employed. Therefore, data collected using the different sets of definitions should not be used interchangeably. Forensic practitioners and laboratories making use of the updated reference manual must take into consideration how the current results might influence their standard operating procedures. Furthermore, all databases that currently make use of the original measurements, such as the South African-specific databases used in Fordisc, must be updated to include the modified measurements to stay on par with international data collection standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using discriminant functions based on morphometric data is one of the most approved methods for sex and ancestry estimation on skeletons. Nevertheless, population data from various parts of the world is needed in order to reliably classify an individual into a group. Due to population variation even sex estimation is biased when there is a lack of adequate data. Software that computes discriminant functions based on morphometric data is Fordisc®. Unfortunately, the above mentioned effects reduce its applicability in countries other than the US. For improvement of this situation data collection is currently performed extensively. The present paper shows a comparison of an Italian sample from the identified modern skeletal collection of CAL (Collezione Antropologica Labanof) [1] (Cattaneo, 2018) at the Institute of Legal Medicine Milan, Italy with a Euro-American sample from the Forensic Data Bank at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA. Fordisc® 3.1 was used to study population differences and sexual dimorphism. The analyzes were performed on a selection of 19 highly influential measurements that are present in most individuals of both groups respectively. Italian crania show in relation to Euro-Americans wider and lower vaults with shorter cranial bases and wider faces. The degree of sexual dimorphism is similar in both groups. Yet there is a shift in the absolute value range for males and females that biases sex estimation by almost 25% when an individual is classified on the respective other discriminant function. Our results provide explanations for Fordisc®'s unsatisfying performance on non-US individuals. At the same time they show that significant improvement is achieved by adding more population samples to its dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection is a modern and continuously growing identified osteological collection of 2127 skeletons under study in the Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense (LABANOF) in the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health of the University of Milan (Italy), and part of the Collezione Antropologica LABANOF (CAL). The collection presents individuals of both sexes and of all age groups with a high representation of the elderly and an interesting sample of infants. Each individual is associated with a documentation that includes sex, age-at-death, dates of birth and death, and a death certificate that specifies the exact cause of death and the chain of events that led to it (related pathological conditions or traumatic events). It was also possible to recover for several individuals the autopsy reports and antemortem photographs. This documented osteological collection is of crucial interest in physical and forensic anthropology: it provides unique teaching opportunities and more importantly considerable research possibilities to test and develop sex and age estimation methods, investigate key subjects of forensic relevance and discuss pathological markers, among others. The aim of this paper is to introduce the CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection as a new identified skeletal collection and present its research and teaching potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of ancestry is an essential benchmark for positive identification of heavily decomposed bodies that are recovered in a variety of death and crime scenes. This is especially true when reconstructing the biological profile of the deceased as most methods for sex, age and stature estimation are population-specific. Ancestry estimation methods vary from traditional morphological assessment of cranial features and biometric quantification to computer-aided shape analysis and classification with specialised software. The current paper aims to explore population differences between three neighbouring countries (Greece, Cyprus and Turkey) that have been in constant interaction through conflicts and population movements from the ancient past to the present day, through cranial measurements. The sample consists of 160 dry crania of Greek origin, 137 dry crania of Greek-Cypriot of origin Cyprus and 380 CT scans from Turks individuals. Twelve measurements were taken in both dry and virtual skulls. Data were submitted to principal component analysis and discriminant function analysis. Intra- and inter-observer error as well as the measurement error between virtual and physical measurements were quantified using TEM, rTEM and R. Measurement error was very low in all cases. Classification accuracy for cross-validated data ranged from 74.1 to 97.9%. The highest accuracy was obtained for the Turks sample both in males and females. The results are in accordance with genetic data on the three populations. These results create great confidence in the application of the produced functions in forensic cases requiring ancestry estimation in Cyprus, specifically to unidentified individuals from the 1974 conflict. In addition, these standards can be applied in other forensic situations where ethnicity is an issue but the geographic area of origin is limited to the area encompassing Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Khon Kaen University Human Skeleton Research Centre has a large human collection consisting of 745 modern northeastern Thai (Isan) skeletons derived from bodies bequeathed to the Department of Anatomy during the period 1979-2014. The aim of this paper is to document the collection and address the question of whether the collection may be representative of local Isan people, or populations of the wider region of mainland Southeast Asia. This will determine its value as a reference collection for forensic anthropology in particular but also for all other fields of research about human skeletal biology. Sex is recorded for 99.6% of the skeletons, and age at death for 91.7%. The collection consists of two-thirds males, one-third females. It includes 10 individuals less than 19 years of age, and adults ranging in age from 20 to 109 years of age. Average age at death is 62 years. Other data available for smaller proportions of the collection include cause of death, occupation, and height and weight at the time of donation. Dates of birth are estimated to range from the late 19th Century to the most recent in 1988. Analysis of the demographic composition of the collection shows that is likely to be representative of the ancestral mix of the Isan people, and of the village farmers who still form a large portion of the Isan population. It may also represent 20th Century populations of much of Southeast Asia where agriculture dominates the economy. The collection forms a valuable resource for research on regional human skeletal characteristics for use in forensic anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, several studies have been carried out using the calcaneus bone for sex estimation. This paper collected data using ten variables for metric characteristics of the calcaneus of 144 modern Cretans and examined their correlation with known sex. Secondly, the formulae developed by Peckmann et al. (2015) for modern Athenians was put to the test in order to investigate if it could be applied to this modern Cretan sample as well. Results showed a high correlation between the calcaneus metrics and the known sex of the individuals, however the formulae for Athenians do not seem to be suitable for the Cretans due to the high sex bias reported in this study. Thus, new standards were created for sex estimation from the calacanei in our sample. Bilateral asymmetry was noted in the majority of cases, thus formulae were developed for left, right and mean values. Maximum width (MAXW) was the variable that performed the best in the Cretan sample. Overall, the cross-validated accuracies for univariate and multivariate equations reached 84.2% with males most often correctly identified. The calcaneus was proved to be useful for sex estimation in this modern Cretan population. Further work will explore the suitability of the produced standards for other regions of mainland Greece and islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex assessment of skeletal remains in the context of forensic investigation is one of the most important components when constructing biological profile of the deceased individual since it helps to significantly narrow down the number of potential victims. Therefore, the number of methods suitable to estimate sex should be as wide as possible, especially for cases of highly fragmented remains. This paper offers a classification method for sexing human remains based on an area around foramen magnum and tests other similar discriminatory functions published elsewhere on an independent sample from the circummediterranean region. We provide discriminant and logistic regression functions for several sets of variable combinations derived from head CT images. None of the functions performs reliably enough to be used in the forensic context. The same holds true for other discriminatory functions published in the literature. For most of the functions, the failure rate (its inability to successfully assign sex of an unknown individual) reaches 100%. Thus, despite the fact that foramen magnum is sexually dimorphic in most populations, its use in sexing cranial remains in the forensic context should be limited only to cases in which we know population affinity of unknown skeletal remains and can provide referential data from the same population to estimate sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collection of 75 modern skeletons from the Philippines has recently been created, and is being housed at the Archaeological Studies Program of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines. All individuals lived during the 20th century, and almost all died within the 21st century. These individuals were accessioned from exhumed and abandoned tombs at the Manila North Cemetery, and most have documented age and sex from tombstone inscriptions. This paper describes the first season of recovery and the collection's current demographic composition, with the future addition of more individuals to the collection expected to follow. The Philippines has an immediate need for forensic resources given its large vulnerable population, widespread diaspora, and exposure to natural disasters. Having a collection of modern Filipinos available for study is critical to the advancement of forensic anthropology and skeletal biology, especially for this heavily understudied population and region of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several authors who have discussed human variability and its impact on the forensic identification of bodies pose the need for regional studies documenting the global variation of the attributes analyzed osteological characteristics that aid in establishing biological profile (sex, ancestry, biological age and height). This is primarily accomplished by studying documented human skeletal collections in order to investigate secular trends in skeletal development and aging, among others in the Colombian population. The purpose of this paper is to disclose the details of the new "Contemporary Colombian Skeletal Reference Collection" that currently comprises 600 identified skeletons of both sexes, who died between 2005 and 2008; and which contain information about their cause of death. This collection has infinite potential for research, open to the national and international community, and still has pending opportunities to address a variety of topics such as studies on osteopathology, bone trauma and taphonomic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human skeletal variability is influenced by several factors, including genetics, environment, and socio-cultural background. Forensic methods being traditionally based on targeted reference groups, it is recognized that they are population-specific. Additionally, secular trends highly impact on the skeletal morphology, but the effect of outdated methods on forensic cases is not yet well documented. This paper compares the sexual dimorphism of femoral dimensions in two samples from the Czech population separated by 60 years in time (Pachner and the Prague National Museum Collections). Significant secular trends are present within this short span in both sexes and for most of the seven tested linear variables. The consequence of secular trends on sex determination is tested with logistic regression, and a decrease in reliability is systematically observed when using the older Czech sample on the 20th century sample, whichever the set of variables included. A model based on a recent Croatian sample provides a higher reliability on contemporaneous Czech individuals. These results imply that above population specificity, temporal consistency may be a major criterion to fulfil when applying forensic anthropology identification methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic anthropology is an increasingly developing discipline born about a century ago in the United States with the objective to contribute the knowledge of bone biology and physical anthropology to the emerging needs of the court of law. The development of research in biological and forensic anthropology has made rapid progress worldwide in the past few years, however, in most countries--with the exception of the United States--forensic anthropology work is still considered within the duties of the forensic pathologist. This paper attempts to summarise the history and development of forensic anthropology in Thailand by providing information on past and current research and practice that can help forensic practitioners to apply existing methods in forensic cases and mass disasters. It is hoped that the lessons learned from the tsunami catastrophe and the emerging need for positive identification in medicolegal settings will lead to rapid advances in education, training and professional engagement of anthropologists from the forensic departments and the law enforcement agencies in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]